Geoff

You and your husband are definitely in Melinda and my Prayers Cindy! God bless, Geoff

Curtis could you please paste the article I am very interested in reading it. Best, Geoff

Hello All, I saw our Complimentary Medicine Dr. (Dr. Chang at meridian medical http://www.meridianmedical.org/ ) with mom again today. I thought I would post the prescription meds that the Dr. has mom on with some links to articles that expand on what they may do. 800mg Celebrex: http://www.asco.org/ac/1,1003,_12-00262 ... 750,00.asp also check out this link which is also a very interesting video: http://www.cancer-innovations.com/cox-2/lung-cancer.asp (if your on a dial-up or slow internet connection you can also read the transcript) Biaxin the anti cancer antibioti http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/quer ... =iconabstr Pravacol to lower cholesterol and fight cancer: http://money.cnn.com/2004/06/07/news/fo ... olesterol/ Avandia a drug for diabetics that also fights cancer: http://lombardi.georgetown.edu/about/ne ... ?newsID=13 And also Tagamet (the stomach acid reducer) to help protect her stomach from the celebrex and also as a anti-cancer agent: http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2002/jul ... ne_01.html Warning: I have read that Tagamet may interact with Irrisa!!! Please consult a Dr. before taking any drugs. Mom also gets regular blood tests to check liver function. Mom is currently on Taxol/Carbo and Dr. Chang told us to cut out all anti-oxidants while on chemo. Dr. Chang believes in a multi pronged approach to fighting Cancer and I strongly agree that an agressive approach is the way to go. She is also on several supplements: Alkyrols- shark liver oil (immune boost) PSP- cloud mushroom extract (anti-cancer agent) L-glutamine powder (side effect prevention) Natcell Thymus (immune boost) Lactoferrin (anti-cancer agent) Thisilyn Pro (milk thistle) (liver protection) Dr. Chang is also involved with Dendritic cell therapy that they are pioneering in Germany and can help patients get treatments there. I am highly interested in this type of therapy, and intend to get mom involved with some type of it after she finishes chemo. More info at this Web site: http://www.dendritic.info Mom is responding miraculously well. Her tumors are literally disappearing and her cancer markers are dropping. Thank you all for your prayers as I honestly consider prayer and God’s grace to be the number one factor in her healing. There have been some amazing examples of God’s grace through out this ordeal and at some point I will put that all down in writing. If anyone has any questions please feel free to PM me. God Bless and prayers for all, Geoff

Check out this website: http://www.transimmune.net/ These are the guys from Yale. The video presentation is very interesting. They are about to start a trial for NSCLC. Mom is not eligable because of her brain mets, but I'm staying in close contact with this group. I'll keep everybody posted as I find out more. Also I have heard about some dendritic work one of our docs (Dr. Chang our alternative medicine doc) is doing with Germany. I'll see him again Monday after next and get more info.

That is very interesting. Especially that last bit as I have been looking into various vaccine and dendritic cell therapies for mom after she finishes chemo.

Yeehaw!! That's great news Peggy! Thank you also for the recap of the Q and A. Prayers as always for you and your husband. Geoff

Great news Paddy!! I love English triffel myself, If you like english food try roast beef and Yorkshire pudding! Continued prayers, Geoff

Hello All, I finally have read and gone over all of mom’s reports (CT and MRI) have received even more good news! In the brain mom is down to 4 small tumors (she started with 12+) they are all under a cm. Now on to the rest of her body: The tumor in her adrenal gland has disappeared, and all of the lymph nodes have cleared up to a large extent to the point where they recommend a pet scan to see what’s going on! The rest of her body other than the bones remains clear! I have spoken to several docs about what’s going on in her lung as late as yesterday. The consensus seems to be that they are not quite sure. There are a lot of changes and inflammation from the chest radiation that make it very hard to see what’s going on. They can’t really see the tumor in her right lung and the lung is showing improved aeration (at one point it was completely blocked from the tumor) so at the very least there is improvement. She still has a large pleural effusion and a medium sized pericardial effusion and her lower right lung remains collapsed. We’ve seen a pulmonary specialist about draining the lung so that remains an option, but he seemed to indicate that unless there are real symptoms from the pleural effusion leave it alone. He said that draining it might help the lung re-inflate, but then again it might not (by the way I’ll take a doc who is admits he doesn’t know over one who thinks he knows everything any day ). I’ll be doing more research into that issue. Mom is doing very well physically and spiritually right now and the entire family thanks you all for the prayers and good wishes. I firmly believe it is the prayers and God’s grace that are getting us through this. I also want to take the opportunity to say thank you to Rick and Katie and everyone on the board for offering love, support, and guidance as we go through this ordeal. I have changed a lot for the better after mom’s diagnosis and you all have been a big part of that. Melinda and I think about and pray for you all daily. God bless, Geoff

I absolutely add him to the prayer list. Best, Geoff S

Prayers definately on the way!! Geoff and Melinda

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3921693.stm

Melinda and my prayers are with you guys as you go through this. Best, Geoff

Great News!!!!!!!!! Geoff and Melinda

Many prayers for T-bone and the family. Geoff and Melinda

Everyone, We have been waiting and waiting for the results of mom’s brain MRI and we finally got the preliminary word from our onc. “Fewer, smaller, better” were her exact words! We get the full report and the latest CAT scan results Thursday of next week. I have obviously been concerned most about mom’s brain mets as chemo doesn’t reach the brain. The whole brain radiation is obviously doing its job. Thank you all for the continued prayers and support. I’m sorry I haven’t been posting much lately but you are all in my daily prayers! Best, Geoff

Ginny, You and Earl are continually in Melinda and my prayers. Your strength, dignity, and love for Earl have taught us a great deal. I'm so sorry that you are going through this. God bless, Geoff and Melinda

Lots of prayers an the way Denise, hang in there.

There is a 3 page article on new cancer treatments in the June 21 issue of Time. I will try to scan it in the next couple of days.

Please see my topic on biaxin in the "New treatment" section it was kind of in both catagories. Best, Geoff

By the way mom is taking 250mg twice a day of biaxin

Hello All, We recently had a visit with Dr. Chang at Meridian Medical. http://www.meridianmedical.org/ He is a believes in using many nontraditional but scientificaly viable approaches to fighting cancer including celebrex and copper reduction with TM. He will be formulating a new protocol for fighting mom’s cancer. He prescribed an antibiotic called biaxin or clarithromycin. Apparently it has been shown to fight NSCLC. Apparently they are working on this in Japan and in one study found that it doubled the survival of the people taking it. Following are some links regarding the antibiotic. http://aac.asm.org/cgi/content/full/43/11/2787 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/quer ... =iconabstr http://content.karger.com/ProdukteDB/pr ... =48556.pdf http://taylorandfrancis.metapress.com/a ... 1:102197,1 Best, Geoff

Prayers on the way!

I hear you loud and clear Cathy.

Ginny, We'll be praying for you and Earl. God Bless, Geoff

Thanks for the prayers everybody, mom woke up without a headache today Thank God! I have some info for everybody as well we saw a Dr. Chang at Meridian Medical on Wednesday. He was recommended to me by another forumite and I have to say I was impressed (which is rare for me). He believes in throwing multiple agents at the cancer in order to slow it down and work in conjunction with mainstream stuff. He is a big believer in Celebrex which he thinks will be a mainstream treatment soon. He also prescribed Viaxin which is an antibiotic that is used in to slow tumor growth that they are studying in Japan. He showed me some clinical data on it that was very interesting basically the people who were on it lived twice as long as the people who were not. I will track it down and post it in the new treatment section. He also uses TM to reduce copper and a bunch of other stuff as well. We have another appointment next Wed to kick off a new protocol for mom. Philosophically I agree totally with his approach, he also did a good job of explaining things to mom, not only about his treatments but about the mainstream stuff as well. All his treatments are based in good science as well. I will of course keep everybody posted as we go through it. http://www.meridianmedical.org/ Denise: We are all doing very well and I truly feel are very blessed. Melinda has been MIA as she has been finishing up school (she teaches 5th grade) which is always stressful for her. She is also not teaching there next year which has been very emotional. All the kids love her and when she broke the news that she was not returning pretty much the entire school broke into tears, it was a mess. School is now over and she is spending some time with her mom getting some well deserved rest. Thank you all again as I really believe that prayers are the most important part of any treatment. God bless, Geoff